The increased popularity of fast food establishments, coupled with the popularity of consuming food on-the-go, has led to the need for more convenient carrying of food and beverages.
Billions of disposable beverage containers are used every year. Often, those containers are part of a larger meal, and current technology dictates placing a lid on the beverage container, so packing the food and condiments is done using separate and detached containers. This may be satisfactory for a consumer seated at a table. However, when the consumer must eat on-the-go, use of the current technology is problematic. Consider, for example, a consumer who is drinking the beverage and would like to access a French fry and ketchup. The consumer must set aside a beverage, and then use one hand to hold the bag and the other hand to access the ketchup packet, then set aside the bag and use both hands to open the packet, and finally free up one hand to access the fry and dip it into the ketchup. As shown in this example, current technology does not allow for convenient on-the-go eating.
The inventor of the present application has disclosed a food container that couples to a drink lid, addressing some of the problems in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,491 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Dec. 3, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,381,935 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Feb. 26, 2013; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,714,393 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on May 6, 2014 disclose such a food container. But even these containers have some shortcomings. First, industry adoption of the prior lid-coupling food containers will be slow because they are not compatible with existing non-lid-coupling containers; thus, fast food restaurants would bear a great expense in either maintaining two types of food containers (lid-coupling and non-lid-coupling) on hand or replace all the food containers with the new lid-coupling design. Second, because of their complicated structures, the prior lid-coupling food containers are made of plastics, which are not as environmentally friendly as paper. Indeed, many fast food chains have converted from environmentally damaging Styrofoam® containers, and the like, to paper containers in an effort to address this concern. For food establishments that currently use paper or cardboard containers, reverting back to solid plastic containers may meet resistance.
What is therefore needed is a lid that overcomes these shortcomings and fosters convenient on-the-go eating.